Working Environment

[Anchor Lead]

In 2007, a Samsung Electronics worker died of leukemia, prompting the mediation committee to straighten out the dispute between the deceased worker and the company over hazardous working environment. Now the committee's final mediation plan has been released to the public almost three months after Samsung Electronics and Banolim, an advocate group representing the families of the deceased Samsung workers, agreed to unconditionally accept the arbitration proposal.

[Pkg]

The mediation committee's arbitration proposal can be summed up as lower compensation amount and more compensation recipients. Subsequently, compensation recipients will include all Samsung Electronics employees who fell ill after working more than a year at the semiconductor and LCD productions lines in the Samsung Electronics Giheung plant since 1984. Compensation period is set between May 17th 1984 to October 31st 2028. What comes after 2028 will be determined 10 years later. The illnesses eligible for compensation include common types of cancer like leukemia and brain tumor, rare forms of cancer and other rare diseases, as well as miscarriages, stillbirths, and congenital deformities. In case of cancer, leukemia patients can receive up to 150 million won in compensation. Tabulation of compensation amount for individual victims will be consigned to an independent organization. Following the announcement of the arbitration proposal, Hwang Sang-ki, father of the late Samsung Electronics worker Hwang Yu-mi, repeatedly stressed that such incidents should never happen again.

[Soundbite] Hwang Sang-ki(Father of the late Hwang Yu-mi) : "I think Yu-mi would like it, too. Just because we settled, the problem is not over. From now on, Samsung should cooperate in the matters concerning public interest."

Samsung Electronics and Banolim have announced that they will unconditionally accept the proposal as they had agreed back in July. Specifics will be fine-tuned within this month before the final agreement is reached.